Abdication
by HumanBarricade
Summary: Fresh out of high school, Dib ends up in an asylum. Zim disappeared. He lost it. He'll do anything to get out and find out what Zim's up to and where he went.
1. Chapter 1

I lie in my sorry excuse for a bed, the coarse fabric scratching at my skin. One thin blanket covers my even thinner body. Rubbing my eyelids, I sit up. Faint moonlight hits my face. Sleeping is futile I suppose.

Ever since the end of high school I've been locked up in this place, this hell. They put me in a tiny, dark room out of place and out of mind. I'm insane. Everyone keeps telling me that I'm insane. I've been here so long. I'm not crazy. I know that I'm not. It's hard to hold onto that feeling after they keep beating it out of my mind.

After Zim left, my life became such shit. I desperately tried to find him. His house disappeared. GIR was gone. Every photo I had was erased. I don't know how he got them. Why did he leave? He was so determined to end the human race and then _poof_ , he's gone.

My head rests in my hands. I will myself to remember him. These drugs they try to force-feed me make everything slip away. He was a small, green Irken. Yeah, an Irken. That was the name of his race, I think. I hope. If I wrote it down the nurses would take it away again. They take everything I write or draw deemed insane from me.

"Zim," I whisper his name to myself so silently.

They might be watching me, listening to me. I'll never really know. The therapists say I'm paranoid. At least I know what's out to get me.

I stand from my bed and tiptoe to the door of my room. A thin window lets me peek out into the desolate hallway. It's eerily silent. That usually means the nurses have drugged all of the noisy patients or everyone lucid is smart enough to stay quiet.

If Zim is still out there, even after all of these long months, I need to catch him. I don't belong in here. He's planning something. He always is. I've tried to steal keys, find open windows, sneak out, everything. I've nearly gotten out a couple times but there's that damn alarm.

My fingers press against the cold glass. Just because I can escape my room doesn't mean I can escape the building.

I tell myself, "I can never give up. They can't keep me here forever."


	2. Chapter 2

Every ounce of my being wants to lunge at him. My eyes follow the tall, familiar man as he walks to his chair. Oh, it's been years since I've seen him, Mr. Dwicky.

"Did your alien friends finally drop you off?" I ask in a mutter.

I fold my arms tightly across my chest. He smiles at me, putting on a gleeful front.

He says with a light laugh, "Come on, Dib, we've been through this. There's no such thing as aliens."

"Why are you lying about this?! They're out there! Zim's fucking out there and he wants to end us all! Why don't you get that?" I yell.

I stand from my chair, clenched fists ready to strike. I doubt I could fight off a beefy guard, but Dwicky is scrawny like me. I can take him. I'll try. He calmly stands and locks his gaze with mine.

"Please, sit down. All I want to do is help you work through this. To find out what the real problem is."

"Zim _is_ the real problem."

He sighs. I'm not giving him enough bullshit answers to satisfy him. Having to talk to asshole therapists was shitty enough, but having him as one? There's no way in hell that's happening.

"Is this about your mother, Dib? You never had one, did you?" he asks.

My heart skips a beat. My breath catches in my throat. Hardly able to think, I sit back down. That's such a low blow.

"This is all abandonment issues. You never had a mother figure. Your father brushed you off. Your sister…err, we both know about her," he explains, shortly pausing at the part about Gaz. "You never had any friends, Dib. This Zim character, you made him up. Your mind couldn't cope with being rejected and abandoned by your peers and your family. But this imaginary friend of yours is unhealthy. He's caused you to put yourself and others in danger. If you weren't a risk you wouldn't be here."

"He's real. I'm not insane! I'm not!" I cry and scream, grabbing onto his shirt.

Fear invades his eyes. They widen. My bony fingers latch onto his collar for dear life as a guard attempts to pry me off of him. He yells at me, but I don't understand him over my wailing. I'm dragged out into the hallway where they inject some sedatives into my arm. Having felt a needle being stabbed into my arm, I scream again. I kick, I punch, I bite, but it's all hopeless. My eyes close in a matter of seconds.


	3. Chapter 3

Rolling onto my side, I slowly wake up. A nauseous feeling resides in my stomach. My senses feel dull. I attempt to sit up, but a massive wave of pain forces me to lie back down. My head throbs.

"This shouldn't hurt so much," I mutter to myself.

It has to be those damn pills. They must have shoved some down my throat again. I press my fingertips deep into my temples. If I'm lucky I'll vomit and get rid of them.

I crawl on the floor to the toilet in the corner of my room. Gripping the seat, I pull myself up. The water in the bowl ripples from my heavy breathing. There's a strange reflection in it. Squinting, I gasp at what I see.

Turning around, I say, "Zim?!"

No one's there, just a dark room. I shake my head.

"It's just the pills," I tell myself. "He's out there somewhere. He has to be."


	4. Chapter 4

Burnt eggs again. I prod at them with my fork. There's scratches and water marks all over the utensil. Everything here has this false sense of cleanliness: the sinks, the toilets, the chairs, the tables. The chemicals seem to eat them up rather than sanitize them. Maybe that's what the doctors and nurses are trying to do to me.

A woman sits across from me. Her stringy, brown hair hangs in her face. Wrinkling her bulbous nose, she scarfs down an egg. It's disgusting how anyone can eat this. Zim would've complained without end about food like this, or really any food.

Smiling, I remember the time he had a plate of blackish goo in front of him. He wore these ridiculous cleaning gloves and googles. I was so fed-up with people not seeing how weird that was. Then that whole muffin incident happened.

"Hey, you gonna eat that?" the woman asks me.

Caught off guard, I stare at her. She takes my tray. She eats the eggs like she's starving. I glance down at my thin hands. The rest of my body isn't any better. Speaking of starving, I should really be eating more. The stress and the horrible food don't help. I need energy to fight, to escape, and to plan.

I stand up from the table. As I walk towards the bathroom, I grab a fruit cup from a counter and stuff it into my pants pocket. The people here get kind of picky about patients having seconds. The pads of my fingers press open the white door.

I whisper to myself, "Good, it's empty."

I find the cleanest stall and lock myself in it. Peeling off the plastic cover, I lick the syrup off. This is the closest to real food I'll ever get to in here. I bite into the chunks of fruit. If only I could get my hands on a fresh pear or peach. It's been so long. I'd let the juice dribble down my chin.

Someone walks into the bathroom. I hear him turn on the sink.

"Disgusting humans. They call _that_ food?" he says to himself.

The plastic cup slips out of my hand. I burst through the stall door, pointing my finger at him.

"Zim!" I yell, turning him around.

A pale man with graying hair looks up at me. He shivers under my grip.

"Jim? Well, he-he's out back," he tells me.

"You're…" I trail off.

Letting him go, I rush out of the bathroom. Once I get to an empty hallway I slide down the wall. The man's confused face hangs in my vision.

Clutching my head, I mumble, "This can't be happening. I haven't had those pills in so long."

That voice was so familiar, too familiar. There's no way anyone could speak like him. No one else would say 'disgusting humans'. I don't know if that guy just happened to say something about humans or if…

"I'm not imaging him," I try to convince myself.


	5. Chapter 5

Two nurses and a guard sit at a table talking to each other on the other side of the room. The guard's keys poke out of his back pocket. I'd grab them if they weren't on a metal wire connected to his belt. Brooding over my dilemma, I sit alone near a window.

"Why can't you all be dumb like the kids at school?" I breathe. "I guess that'd be too easy."

All I need is one guard to slip up. I've seen them leave their keys lying around before, but on counters where the nurses are. Some kind of distraction might help. If I take a key they'll notice again.

"What good is a key if I'm locked in my room? I need a way out of there. Something to keep it open."

I purse my lips. Even if I get out of my room, avoid being seen, and unlock doors until I get to an exit, that alarm with ruin all of it. Only the main entrance has no alarm. Those doors are constantly monitored. I can't go through there.

I think out loud to myself, "If only I could disable the alarm. Hmm, there has to be a control room for it somewhere."

The guard standing up yanks me out of my planning. His dangling keys taunt me. I almost want to rip them away. But I know better.

Watching him saunter away, I see a flash of green go the opposite direction. I look at where it went. It looked like it went down the hallway to the right. Blindly, I follow it.

My footsteps echo in the windowless hallway. Cream yellow walls surround me.

"Have you seen him?" an old woman asks, jumping at me as I pass her door.

Slender, bony fingers press cracked fingernails into my shirt. Her sunken eyes peer up at me.

"Who?" I ask.

Tilting her head, she whispers, "He knows you're here. I can't find him. Always running. Away. Away."

I shake my head.

"I don't have time for this. Get off me," I mutter, pushing her away.

I continue down the hallway. Whatever the green thing was, I need to find it. There's something here.

Quickly rounding another corner, I see the green thing disappear into a room. I run to the door. I jiggle the doorknob.

"It's locked," I groan.

Gritting my teeth, I yell, "Get out! I know you're in there!"

There's no response. I bang on the door.

"Open the door! Let me in."

Nothing. Backing away, I run into it with my shoulder. The smacking motion bruises it. Brushing it off, I run into it again. And again. And again. On the final try I bust it open.

"It's a fucking empty cleaning closet," I cough, falling to my knees.

I rub my sore shoulder. Someone was in there. There must be a secret door, a portal, or that could've been a ghost. Yeah, they'd pass through the walls.

"You're just a ghost. You're playing with me, aren't you?"

"Hey, what are you doing?" a nurse asks, sprinting to me.

Her heels click and clack against the linoleum floor. She stops feet away from me.

"How did you open that? Never mind. You're coming with me," she insists.

Grabbing my sore shoulder, she pulls me to my feet. I pull away. She watches as I nurse it.

I say under my breath, "There was someone in there."

"Come with me, Dib."

Her hand finds its way to my other shoulder. She leads me away from the empty room. I can't help but wonder who or what that was.


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh, Dib, it's bad enough that we find you off of your medication but breaking open doors? Why? You're not trying to ingest cleaning fluid, are you?" a doctor asks me.

His certificate on the wall says Doctor Farnsworth. He's not my usual doctor, but then again I never seem to get the same one more than a few times.

"No," I reply.

Dr. Farnsworth presses his gloved fingers against my bruised skin. He acts like he's looking for something. His fingers travel to my back.

"Have you been eating?" he asks.

Raising an eyebrow, I say, "Yes. Why?"

"You look thinner than when I last saw you. And your new weight backs that up."

He pauses for a moment. Walking over to a counter, he picks up a clipboard. His pen scribbles across the paper. I continue sitting on the examination table shirtless. I shiver. My shirt lies next to me. Glancing over at it, I pick it up and hold it over my chest.

The doctor finally continues, "All right, you're going to be monitored when you eat from now on and I'm setting up an appointment with your therapist for you. This self-destructive behavior of yours is very concerning."

He's not serious, is he? I bet he thinks I'm suicidal. That's just great. I'm lucky he didn't put me on suicide watch.

"Self-destructive? I'm not trying to hurt myself. These stupid pills are hurting me. I can't think or see straight with them," I shoot.

He gestures to my glasses.

"Try taking your glasses off when you're on your medication. That should help. As for thinking straight, you'd be able to if you gave your body a chance to get used to them. By skipping doses you never get accustomed to it."

He hands me a cup with three varying shapes and colors of pills. I stare at them.

"Take them," he says sternly.

Reluctantly, I grab the paper cup. I plop them into my mouth. He glares at me until I swallow.

"That wasn't so bad now, was it? Now run along and stop knocking down doors," he instructs.

I pull my shirt on and happily leave.


	7. Chapter 7

Anxiously, I wait for Dwicky in his office. Unlike the rest of this place, the walls aren't a sickly yellow or an overly sanitary white. No, these walls are just brown, probably to keep him from going insane like the rest of us.

I turn as he opens his door. A cup of coffee steams in his hand. His blue eyes watch me as he walks to his chair. I'm not stupid enough to attack him again.

"I heard that you were caught breaking into a janitor's closet, Dib. You also seem to have been eating less. Dr. Farnsworth believes that you're, err, suicidal or self-destructive at the least," he begins, sipping from his mug while reading over a report. "Now, I wouldn't rush to the conclusion that you're suicidal, but I have to agree that this behavior is a little odd. What's wrong? You can tell me."

I shout, "You! You and this place are my problem. Everyone acts like I'm out of my mind. You all shove pills down my throat when I resist anything you say."

"Dib, please, we're just trying to help you."

"You're trying to silence me."

Dwicky sighs and rubs his temples. I can only imagine how many other patients he has to argue with. It'd make my day if he quit before I did.

"There's something I've been meaning to show you," he says, all of a sudden.

He slides a manila folder across his desk to me. Cautiously glancing up at him, I take it. The contents break me into a million pieces.

Class attendance sheets show no one by the name of Zim. Enrollment doesn't mention him. No residence is under his or his parents' names. Pictures from Google Earth show the empty lot where his green house was supposed to be. He's in no yearbooks. No social security number. No birth certificate. No fingerprints. No photos. There are testaments from classmates and teachers denying his existence.

"What is this?" I shoot through a few tears.

"Evidence. This is what you asked for, isn't it?"

"This is all bullshit. It's fake. Zim was and is real. You saw him, Dwicky. You of all people should know about aliens. How can you just deny all of this?"

"Your obsession with this fake person is hurting you. Can't you see how this has ruined your life? You pushed away your family and classmates. I can't tell if you were trying to get attention or prove that you're right or find a sense of purpose or what. Those can all be good things, but the ways in which you tried to get them were harmful."

"Where is that video camera I gave you all of those years ago?" I ask, staring down at my fists in my lap.

He starts, "Video camera? You never gave—"

"Cut the crap, Dwicky. Where is it? You had it with you the last time you saw me years ago."

"I don't know."

I drop the folder back onto his desk. Every paper in there is fabricated. Yeah. It's a piece of cake to remove a name from a list. Zim never had a birth certificate or a social security number so those absences don't surprise me. Dwicky's denial is what gets me. I can't face him head on with that anymore, though. He'll keep denying it. I need someone who won't lie to me.

"Could I talk to my sister?"

"Your sister? Hmm, if you'd like you could write her a letter and see if she wants to visit you. I'll make sure to put in a card with dates and hours on it."

In my mind I grin. Even if Gaz truly does hate me, she knows that Zim is real. All I can do now is hope that she visits.


	8. Chapter 8

Someone needs to stop serving these horrible eggs. The rough texture makes me want to vomit. That'd be the worst thing to happen. One of the male nurses patiently watches me as I cut the burnt egg into pieces. If I don't eat this or end up purging it, onto suicide watch I go.

"The food here is shit," I mutter under my breath.

"It's protein," he says with a smile. "It's good for you."

He pulls out a turkey sub from a brown paper bag. Of course, he doesn't complain about these eggs because he doesn't have to eat them. Oh how I'd love to have a real sandwich.

I look away. I can't let my stomach drive me. I need to focus.

I groan and mumble into my hands, "Where would Zim go?"

"You've been asking yourself that same question for what, nearly ten months now?" someone asks me.

That's Zim's voice. I turn my head. His zipper-toothed grin hangs in the air for a mere moment. That maniacal laugh of his echoes throughout the room. I shiver. My gaze frantically travels all of the room.

"Dib, are you all right?" the nurse asks me.

I look back at him.

"I—I—I…n-never mind," I stutter back.

Stabbing a couple pieces of the egg, I shove them into my mouth. The sooner I finish eating the sooner I get away from this guy. Then I find Zim.


	9. Chapter 9

Tapping my fingers against a white table, I wait for Gaz to come. She said she'd come today. That's actually all she said. This is why I don't usually write to her.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Gaz's purple hair. It's one of the few normal things I've seen since I was put away in here. She still has that deadly aura about her. Each step she takes towards me seems like a warning in and of itself.

"I got your stupid letter, Dib. What do you want?" she groans, sitting down across from me.

Part of me wants to jump to asking her if she knows Zim is real. As soon as I ask her that she'll get annoyed. Anything I say will annoy her, but that especially.

"Did you, um, bring my computer?" I ask.

"Yeah. The people at the main office checked it and said it's fine."

She sets it on the table.

Before I can grab it she says, "You do realize that you made me take time out of my day in which I could have been playing on my Game Slave five. I need something in return that makes this stupid trip worth it."

"Well, in my room there's this stash of five hundred dollars in—"

"I already found that. Anything else?"

"You found that? But I don't—"

Her black fingernails drag the laptop back. My stomach sinks.

She threatens, "I guess I'll be taking this back and, if the drive is annoying enough, I might just break the damn thing into a hundred pieces and bake them into a horrible cake for your horrible birthday so you can choke on every last wire and chip."

"Wait, wait, Gaz, I think I have something," I quickly say.

"What?" she asks, glaring at me through her thick eyeliner.

"Go into the park until you get to the bridge. Make sure you're on the south side. Then, while facing the bridge, turn left and right under that first big oak tree is a box buried in the ground. In it is a go-bag. There should be around five thousand dollars in there. It's been a while. There could be other valuable stuff inside, too."

"Could be?"

"Please, Gaz, I'm trying here."

She shoves the laptop back towards me. I get it out of her reach.

"Fine, take your stupid laptop. Your begging voice is sickening me. Is there anything else or can I leave now?"

Excitedly, I ask, "Zim is real, isn't he? They keep saying he's made up. Dwicky showed me these papers. But they have to be fake, right? And I remember him. I see him. Zim. Where did he go? Have you seen him?"

"I wish I hadn't asked," she grumbles. "Look, I don't care if he was real or fake. He's gone now. You're crazy either way."

"Come on! We fought Tak together. We even fought Zim together a couple times. His annoying robot, GIR, remember when you had to dance with him?"

Her eyes widen as she glares up at me. She looks ready to strangle me. It was worth it. That reaction tells me that he's real.

I happily mumble to myself, "I'm not crazy. He is real. I knew it. I knew it."

"Whatever. I'm leaving," she growls, getting up from her chair.

A huge grin forms across my lips. I knew I could count on Gaz to be easily irritated by Zim's pesky robot. Slowly, my gaze falls to my computer. I'm so damn lucky this place allows computers. This may be my ticket out of here.


	10. Chapter 10

Once everyone goes to their rooms for the night, I start up my computer. It feels so good to have it. Curiously, I check for any pictures of Zim. Nothing. Not even in the trash. I know that someone deleted them. I had so many. They weren't enough to prove he was an alien but they were enough to prove that he existed. There are a couple files full of notes hidden away in some fake school folder. Again, they're not even of Zim. Just Bigfoot, vampires, and the like.

"Come on, Zim, you couldn't have been this thorough. You make mistakes. There has to be something, anything left," I mumble.

Hours go by as I tediously search every file on my computer. The blue light starts to make my eyes sting. This is hopeless. I searched this thing up and down several times before I was put in here. There's no way anything has changed.

I rub my eyes. It doesn't matter. I just need to get out. Then I can find Zim. He's not a priority right now.

I begin hacking away. This asylum has way less cameras than I thought they did. A few are out of focus. Some in the basement and the cafeteria aren't working. All it takes is a couple blind spots to get out. As far as this alarm goes, there's a maintenance mode for it. That'll turn it off for a couple hours. Once those two hours are up it resets. If any door is open it'll go off. I close my computer.

Leaning back on my pillow, I smile and sigh, "I'll be home free. Just need a couple days to prepare and I'm out of here. I'm coming for you, Zim."

A small silhouette stands at the foot of my bed. I restrain myself from moving.

"I'm not scared," Zim laughs. "You won't find me, human. Not even if you manage to escape this horrible Earth holding facility."

"What are you?" I ask, gripping my bed sheets with sweaty palms.

"I am Zim! Have you forgotten?" he exclaims.

"You're not Zim. He wouldn't be here. You're a ghost, aren't you? You're taunting me, playing with me."

"Believe what you want, stink-beast. Zim doesn't care as long as you stay trapped in here."

"No, there's no way you planned for me to get trapped in here! How could you?"

I see him flash his jagged teeth. Almost every part of me is screaming that he isn't real or at least isn't really Zim. But a random ghost couldn't know so much about Zim. It's also impossible for him to be here. He keeps disappearing, reappearing.

"Don't bother trying to escape," he commands.

He turns his back to me. Tossing my laptop to the side, I lunge towards him. I pin him to the floor in the dark. He growls and slaps me across the face. I hit the floor. My hand grabs at his small frame.

Escaping to the door, he asserts, "Listen to me, pathetic Dib, you are going to rot in here and never get out. You will _never_ find me."

I jump at him again. My hands hollowly smack against the door. He's fucking gone.

Biting the side of my lip, I croak, "Why the hell did you leave me?"


	11. Chapter 11

"How was your visit with your sister?" Dwicky asks me, holding a hot mug of coffee in his hands.

"Fine," I say, rubbing my eyes.

"I heard that she brought you your laptop. That was nice of her."

"We both know that she hates me. Can we leave it at that?"

He defensively holds one of his hands up.

"Okay, okay. You're kind of irritable this morning, Dib. Did you sleep all right?" he asks.

I roll my eyes. Every visit is full of these stupid questions. This is a huge waste of my time.

"Yes."

"Any interesting dreams?"

I raise an eyebrow.

"What? Ugh, no. None at all," I quickly reply.

He writes something on his pad of paper. Screw him. I really don't dream that often, especially not last night. That wasn't a dream.

"Uh-huh, you know if you told me about it I could help you through whatever is troubling you. Nightmares are typically warning signs for more serious problems."

"How many times do I have to tell you? I don't want to talk! You never listen to what I have to say anyways. You try to turn what I say into whatever fits your agenda."

"Dib, you're being overly defensive about this. And you clearly haven't taken your medication _again_."

Great, now he has leverage. Biting the corner of my lip, I lean back in my chair.

"It's all right, I won't tell," he assures. "Just give me something to work with. Is it the visit you had with your sister? You two have never gotten along, have you?"

"No. She's nothing short of cruel. Everyone knows to leave her be or you'll surely suffer for interrupting her precious gaming," I tell him.

"I see. Did she have any friends at school?"

"Friends? No again. She's more antisocial than I am."

"What about on her games?"

"I don't know."

"Did you ever envy her for how contently introverted she was?"

My throat tightens a little as I swallow. I never thought about that before. I can't let that get to me. Dwicky is trying to weaken me. He wants my guard down. Sighing, I watch his pen move across the paper.

"It's all right, Dib. Some of us need more social interactions than others. And this must be where Zim came in."

"No. Gaz r—…" I trail off.

It'd be stupid to mention her remembering Zim. Oh he would jump to call me insane again. He would tell me that I'm just feeding sick fantasies or some bullshit.

"Gaz what?" Dwicky asks.

Looking down at my sweaty palms, I mutter, "R-really, um, she really didn't care. About Zim, I mean."

"That must have devastated you."

Yeah, he wishes. I got her to help stop him and Tak from draining the molten core of the Earth one time. She had to care at least a little to do that.

I remain silent with my gaze down. Hopefully he'll take a hint and let me leave. The sound of pen to paper irritates me. All of these notes he has. What does he even do with them? Write a report? A book? Am I _that_ interesting?

He suddenly says, "You'll have to excuse me, I have another patient to see soon. I'm glad that you've opened up a little. I know that it's hard."

Slowly, I get up and leave. I'd love to dash out through the door, but the guards would grab me. I'm lead to the general day room where all of the other patients are doing useless things like reading, watching TV, etc.

One guy sits at a table with a bunch of cotton balls. I curiously watch as he glues them to his paper.

"Ah man, them fibers are always cloggin' up the glue," he groans, trying to squeeze some onto the paper.

Hmm, clogging. Do locks get clogged? No, no gluing a lock shut would be like putting a rocket on a racecar. But the cotton balls might keep it from shutting properly. While the man walks over to a nurse with his glue, I grab a handful of cotton balls and stuff them into my pockets.

"You're lucky the dumb Earth nurses don't notice you," I hear that awful, familiar voice call from behind me.

"Shut up, phony. I don't care," I groan under my breath.

I head straight for my room with my hands in my pockets.

"Oh, Dib, you always care. Don't you need to stop me? I mean, I put you in here for a reason. There's something big going on out there."

"Your taunting won't work. The real Zim would stupidly reveal his whole plan detail by detail. Vague just isn't his style."

"Fine, I won't tell you then. It'll give you less motivation to leave if you don't know."

Quickly, I dump the cotton balls into my dresser drawer under some pants. Zim lingers in my peripheral vision. I blink and he remains.

"What is it?" I ask, turning around.

"No, Dib-thing, you've made it pretty clear that you don't care. Zim is keeping this one a secret."

"That's stupid. I'll just want to escape more for curiosity's sake."

"Zim is not stupid!"

"No, you're just stupider than him. You're a ghost. Admit it. I caught you."

His little fists ball up. Those fake blue eyes of his glare up at me.

He shouts, "I am an Irken Invader sent here to conquer the human race for the Irken Armada! All of you will be my slaves! Especially you! Maybe you've stood in my way before, but now I've got you right where I want you. No one is on your side. They think you're insane. And you are."

"I'm not insane!" I yell. "I'll stop you. I always have. Maybe no one really ever helps or thanks me, but so what? Saving the world is a thankless job. Someone has to do it."

"You're pathetic, saving those who hate you. It's very funny."

My counterargument dies before it reaches my lips. Finding myself at a loss for words, I drop my gaze and sigh. This imposter has a good point. I did this more as a hobby, but it's become a full time job. Dwicky calls it an obsession. I look back up, but Zim's gone.

"Fucking coward," I scoff, wiping my eyes. "Yeah, leave and haunt another guy."


	12. Chapter 12

Impatiently, I tap my fingernails against my laptop. It's taking the guards forever to check all of the doors. I watch on the cameras as they close each remaining person's door. They've already checked mine and luckily didn't catch the cotton balls holding back the lock. I'm anxious about leaving. I've been caught before. Then again, I never had my laptop before.

"I'll make it. This is the night I finally leave this horrible place," I assure myself.

The guards finally finish and most leave to the lounge. After one passes through my hallway, I jam the camera and make it show a loop of the empty hallway. They won't notice anytime soon. Everything looks clear at the moment. I carefully open my door. No one. Gently closing it behind me, I quietly sprint down the hallway with my laptop tucked under my arm.

I check the camera in the next hallway. The guard is fiddling with his cell phone. Damn him. I wait for him to budge. Then I notice a guard coming from behind another hallway over. I bite my lip. I'm so screwed.

"You're going to get caught, again," I hear Zim's voice echo.

He chuckles. I resist the urge to yell at him. He has to be some stupid ghost anyways. It wouldn't matter. The guard ahead of me finally moves. I tiptoe into the hallway despite him only being halfway through. A couple more hallways and I'll be at that fire exit door. Suddenly the guard's cellphone rings.

"Becky! I'm so glad you called. What have you been up to?" he answers.

My heart pounds in my chest. _Don't turn around_ , I think. The other guard is getting closer. The one in front of me starts to walk as he talks. I tail him a little closer than I should. I need to stay close to avoid the guard just in the other hallway. I nearly freeze when I see him checking doors. He only checks a few, though. Mine is narrowly missed. Soon the guy in front of me goes to the right and I take a sharp left. A glowing red sign reading _EXIT_ fills me with joy.

I turn off the alarm when I get to it. I only get about five to ten minutes before it's back on and goes off. A cool breeze hits me as I leave. It's been so long. I run to the fence. Another quick hack and I have the gate open. I'm finally free.

For a long time I jog through the woods, checking behind me every now and then. There's supposed to be a road up here. I hold my laptop to my chest. A cold gust of wind sends a shiver down my spine. If only I had a coat.

The voice mimicking Zim taunts, "Where are you going? Home?"

Ghosts can't wander this far from the object they're tethered to. How am I still hearing him? The asylum has to be at least a mile away now. Unless he's somehow tethered to something on me. A piece of clothing maybe? That would mean someone died in the shirt or pants I'm wearing right now. I'll ditch them as soon as I can.

He continues, "You'll just be caught there, Dib-thing. You have nowhere to run to. You'll become a dirty hobo if you don't get caught. How would you stop me then?"

"Shut up," I mutter, panting as I jog on.

I know that he's smirking. Soon I slow down. My cold laptop steals away heat from my arms. I anxiously rub them. When I see the road ahead, I run to it. It's so remote and late that no one is on it. I contemplate contacting Gaz with my laptop, but deep down I know that she wouldn't help. She's either sleeping or playing video games. I'd only interrupt that.

Hours into the cold night, I finally reach the outskirts of the city. I see the large, purplish skyscrapers and pinkish light filling the sky around them. Millions of neon signs sit atop almost every building in the distance. I clearly remember where Zim's house is at…or should be. It _has_ to be there.


	13. Chapter 13

I find myself running again. I try my best to stay out of densely populated areas. My face could be all over the news. Police cruisers could be prowling the streets waiting for me to make a wrong turn. People waiting outside their doors to catch me and collect reward money. Gulping, I clutch my computer tighter. They'll never give up on locking me away.

Zim's neighborhood lies in the distance. I remember GIR fattened by candy sitting in the street, me trying to sneak into Zim's house as a squirrel, that one girly ranger who got stuck in his yard, and countless other things. The little green monster hid in his freakish house and a mile below ground in his base. Black antennas protruded from his head. Magenta eyes always with a destructive glint in them. Oh how his maniacal laughs would echo from every room in that place. It was horrible.

As I turn a corner to come face-to-face with the house, my jaw drops. I don't know if I should be shocked or not. It's an empty lot. Dwicky said it was. He had photographic evidence. I took pictures of it too, though. I know it was there. I run to the dirt and collapse in it.

"Zim was here. This was Zim's dirt. He was down there," I assure myself, shaking my head.

I expect the ghost to say something, but it's eerily silent. In fact, I haven't heard anything in this neighborhood. No animals scavenging in trash cans, people watching TV in their houses, or the buzz of electrical wires. No wind at all. Sitting up, I gaze at the houses around this lot. They all look abandoned. A couple buildings are crumbling. Did these people leave after Zim did? If they did, I can't ask them if they remember him. It's all too convenient.

My only hope is Tak's ship, if Gaz kept it. Then and only then can I find Zim.

* * *

I spend a long time searching for coins in a fountain near a small park. Slime coats every inch of it and the water looks more like toxic goo than anything else. Finally finding another quarter, I rush to a nearby payphone. I hold the phone close.

"Please answer, please answer. Please be Gaz and not dad."

"Who is this?" Gaz answers.

"Dib," I reply.

"What do you want now?"

"I need Tak's ship."

"No," Gaz groans through the grainy speaker of a payphone.

"Please, Gaz, I went through a lot to get the coins to pay for this call."

I shiver looking back at the fountain.

"I don't care. Go back to your stupid asylum."

"That ship is the only thing that will get me where I need to go."

"If Dad sees you—"

"You're worried about me?"

There's a slight silence. I almost think she'll say yes.

"Ugh, no! I'm not. I don't give a shit. _I_ don't want to get in trouble. We're finally back on good terms and I don't want your stupid alien bullshit to ruin that."

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I threaten, "Bring me the ship or I'll have no choice but to come home."

"Fuck you," she growls. "Fine. Park outside the city limits. Three hours. Leave me alone after that."

I hear a large crash on her end before she hangs up. I'm finally going to find Zim. But before that, I'll get visual confirmation that Irkens exist. With a giddy smile, I sneak away.


	14. Chapter 14

I'm astonished to find Gaz there before me. She plays on her Game Slave 5 in the cockpit. I approach the ship and rub my fingertips across the perfectly round windshield. It's been so long since I've flown. That ship never ceased to give me a hard time in Tak's voice.

"I just washed that," she shouts, getting out and facing me.

"Thank you so much for bringing this," I say, hugging her.

Quickly realizing my mistake, I let her go. Eyes wide, she glares at me. Her knuckles crack before she punches me into the face. I hear her incoherently threaten me with something that sounded like it involved beavers. I hold a hand over my swollen eye.

"I'm sorry, I-I-I just got excited."

"Don't _ever_ touch me or your head is as good as gone. Now I'm going to leave before you do another stupid thing that'll piss me off."

She starts to angrily walk off.

I call out, "Gaz?"

"Make it quick."

"Don't forget me."

She rolls her eyes and keeps walking away. I know what to do now. I have my computer and Tak's ship.

"If I pair them up I can search for any signs of Irken activity," I tell myself, jumping into the cockpit.

"You again? Aren't you supposed to be locked up?" the ship groans in Tak's thick Irken accent.

Ignoring the condescending voice, I connect my computer. The ship strangely giggles. I shrug it off and search for any signals from Irken machinery.

"Looking for Zim?" it asks.

It's uncanny how similar its voice is to Tak's. If I didn't know better I'd think it was Tak.

"Yeah, do you know where he is?"

"Maybe."

"Why do you have to be so difficult?"

"Because I don't like you."

"Just bring me to him."

"No."

My swollen eye starts to throb. Before the ship notices, I hack into its systems. It seems to think Zim is in a base orbiting Earth.

"I need to get there," I say, placing my finger on the screen.

"All right, but I hope you fail. Miserably."

"You haven't changed a bit."

I smile as we take off. It's almost comforting to hear the ship's voice, even if it hates me. It mentioned Zim without me asking. His existence is nearly concrete. Because of Dwicky, I still have this small sliver of doubt.

* * *

A loud metal thud jerks me awake. I press my face to the windshield of the ship. Pinks, reds, and purples cover the massive Irken base orbiting the Earth. Shrinking down in my seat, I gasp and cover my mouth.

"I-I-It's r-real?!" I croak.

For a moment I had thought that Gaz and I built this ship. That maybe I convinced myself Tak and Zim and GIR were real. I've built impressive stuff before. But this base, it's enormous. Not even my dad could create something this elaborate and alien. The Irken race must be real. And Zim has to be inside.

"Did you piss yourself yet?" the ship asks.

"Get me inside."

"You'll get caught."

"I don't care. I need to get in there."

"All right."

The ship flies me in through a small open hangar. It closes immediately after we enter. Strangely, nothing flies out to shoot us nor do any alarms go off. My eyes shift to my computer. I search for any signs of Zim, but the ship can't find anything. The metal walls in this place must be thick. I bet if he's in here he's doing his best to keep from being detected. Who knows how NASA and other space organizations haven't found this. Oh right, they "don't have enough funding" to do shit.

Once the ship lands, I leap out. I make sure to grab my laptop.

"Wait for me here," I command.

It groans, "Whatever. It's not like I have anything better to do."

"Do you have any weapons you could lend me?"

"Nope. You're defenseless. Good luck. Not."

"Thanks," I say sarcastically.

I blindly run off down a hallway. As soon as I find a computer monitor I hack into it for information. Damn it. I don't have the Irken translator on here. I wirelessly link up with the ship. Looking through a map, I find the main control room. He'd have to be there getting ready for something.

"I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going to stop you from doing it," I say out loud.


	15. Chapter 15

I breathe heavily as I bound down the long, empty, purple hallways. A faint laugh begins to echo down them. Zim's laugh. I press on, pushing my hardly-worked-out body. The brash chuckling grows louder.

"Zim," I pant, stopping when I reach the room to breathe.

Needing a break, I hold my knees and force myself to take in air. He stands atop a large structure in the middle of the massive room. Hundreds of feet of empty space separate his stage of monitors and controls from the surrounding three-hundred-and-sixty degree window just above many hallway entrances.

He says, "Ah, Dib-thing, you're just in time for the execution of my brilliant plan."

"No," I growl. "You stay away from the Earth."

"Haha, and how are you going to stop me from down there?"

Quickly, I sprint to another computer screen and hack into it. Before I get anywhere, the screen shuts down. He smirks down at me.

"Pathetic human. Your imprisonment has made you incompetent. I was expecting you to try to hack into my systems."

"Get down here and fight me!" I yell up at him, leaving my computer on the floor.

Curling my fingers into my palm, I glare at him. This asshole alien is the reason I was left to rot in that asylum. He's the reason I was deemed insane enough to lock up. He covered up his tracks. He left. His grin gets wider.

Revealing his zipper teeth, he mocks, "Come and get me."

"I'm going to kick your ass!" I yell and climb up the structure.

Using all of my upper arm strength and adrenaline, I manage to reach the top. He's on the other side. Extending his spider-like mechanical legs, he lunges at me. I punch up at him. His legs pin me to the floor. I lose my breath when my back hits the hard surface. I know that I missed him by a longshot.

"You'll kick nothing of Zim's," he mutters.

I attempt to roll over and trip him. His legs lose their balance, but he regains it before he falls over. Finally free, I stand up. I need to damage his robotic legs. Without those he's just a small weak alien with a huge ego. Now having a clear target, I lunge at him again. Two of his legs swat at me, but I dive under him at the last second. My hands immediately grab a hold of his legs where they meet his pak. He jumps. We both land on our sides. Still holding onto his metal legs, I place my feet against his back. I pull on the legs while pushing against him with my feet. Even with my unimpressive strength I manage to pull them off. Just two of the four.

"No!" he shouts, getting up and looking down at his legs in my hands.

He starts to become blurry. Lines like that on a computer screen suddenly flash over him until he fades into a different Irken.

"T-Tak?!" I gasp.

I drop the legs and get to my feet.

"Ah well, you would've found out eventually," she sighs, her accent angering me.

She's not Zim. I wanted Zim. I came all this way to stop him.

"You tricked me," I groan. "Why? Why would you pretend to be Zim?"

She snickers. It's sickening compared to Zim's chuckling. Suddenly, two metal arms burst out of the floor and restrain me. They pull me down so that I'm kneeling. I clench my teeth.

"Zim was right, you know. You're obsessed with him. You have this insatiable need to fight him, to stop him. That's what makes you weak and predictable. You're desperate."

"Fuck you."

I spit at her. It lands near her boot. Grimacing, she glares at me.

"Why did you have me locked up?" I ask.

"You're the only one who could've stopped my plan," she continues to explain. "I had to get rid of you."

"Why not kill me?"

"Kill you? The Tallest could find a use for you, I'm sure. Being a smart specimen of your species makes you valuable, to a degree. Plus, you're the only besides Zim who could enjoy this plan of mine. I never had a grudge against him until the both of you ruined my life for the second time. Never have I wanted revenge so badly. And now, I get it."

"Plan? You're here just for us, right?"

"I wouldn't waste my time just on you two. Your planet belonged to Irk one way or another once Zim arrived. I'm just finishing what he couldn't. Then I get my rightful place as an Invader."

"Why this planet? Tak, I thought humans were stupid. What use could we possibly have?"

She grins.

"Whatever the Tallest see fit. You see, I've planted other Irkens on your planet. Others Zim has wronged. They've replaced important leaders on your planet. Soon they'll convince your people to move to special areas where they will be captured and enslaved. Then that little ball of dirt will belong to the Irken Empire along with your people."

"I'll stop you," I assert, yanking on the metal arms. "Then I'll get Zim."

"He's dead," she states nonchalantly.

My heart refuses to beat for a long moment. I stare into her cold, purple eyes and feel my shoulders caving in.

"No. No, he ca-can't be."

"He's been executed for his crimes against the Irken Empire. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some important work to attend to. Mimi, take him to his cell."

Her SIR unit falls from the ceiling and lands with a _clang_ to the floor. Somehow landing perfectly on its feet, it looks at me. She's clearly worked on it since our last battle. It's about as tall as her now and has two large metal claws. Gripping my wrists, it places some alien handcuffs onto me. The metal arms release me and leave back into the floor. A platform extends from the stage down to the floor below. Mimi then leads me down it to another hallway.

I hang my head low while the robot leads me away. I've failed again. The Earth is doomed because I couldn't stand my ground against one alien. Tak is smart, though. I still should've planned more for this. She knew how to exploit my need to go after Zim. She used it perfectly.

She says that he's dead. I swallow hard. That can't be. He's Zim. He can't be dead. Not after I went through all of this just to get visual confirmation that he exists. I know that he does now, but so what? Why does it matter now that he's gone anyways?

Every damn day at that asylum revolved around getting out just to stop Zim. He's the only reason I had any drive to get out. I've dedicated my life to this.

"I really am obsessed with Zim," I admit to myself.

Mimi soon pushes me into a tight cell. If I laid down I'd probably only have enough room to just raise my hands above my head. The shackles on my wrists fall off and the robot takes them. I'm then left in the transparent room.


End file.
